of the earth” (Matt. 12:39-40 R.V.). In this declaration, the incarnate Son of God endorsed the historical char acter of Jonah’s entombment and deliverance. Then, in words yet more emphatic, He uttered a solemn warn ing to the Jews for their persistent unbelief. He declared: “The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judg ment with this generation, and shall condemn it! for they repented at the preaching of Jonah: and behold, a greater than Jonah is here” (Matt. 12:41). In the light of these words, it is difficult indeed to understand how anyone can deny honestly that Jesus understood the deliverance of Jonah, his preaching and the re pentance of the Ninevites, to be actual historical facts. (5) Testimony of the Church. From the earliest days of the Christian church, and for more than eighteen centuries, the Book of Jonah was held In universal esteem. None seri ously questioned its historicity save ' the scoffer and avowed skeptic;. Some of the earliest Christian inscriptions are found in the catacombs of Rome and no Biblical subject was more popular in the many myral and sarcophagal representations left in those underground cemeteries than the experiences of Jonah. As one author has stated: “The history of Jonah having been put forward so emphatically by our Lord Himself, as a type both of His own and of the general resurrection, it is not to be wondered at that it should have held the first place among all the sub jects from the Old Testament repre sented in the catacombs. It was con tinually repeated in every kind of monument connected with the an cient Christian cemeteries: in the frescoes on the walls, on the bas- reliefs on the sarcophagi, on lamps and medals, and glasses, and even on the ordinary gravestones. Chris tian artists, however, by no means confined themselves to that one scene in the life of the prophet in which he foreshadowed the resur rection, viz., his three days’ burial in the belly of the fish, and his de liverance from it as it were from the jaws of the grave. The other incident of his life was painted quite as com monly, viz., his lying ‘under the shadow of the booth coveted with ivy on the east side of the city’ for refreshment and rest; or again, his misery and discontent, as he lay in the same place, when the sun was beating upon his head and the ivy had withered away.’” In addition to the testimony of the catacomb representations, consider the greatest authorities of the church throughout her entire history. Je rome, the greatest scholar of the early church, wrote a commentary on the Book of Jonah. The sermons and
writings of Irenaeus, Augustine, Chrysostom and other Church Fath ers abound in references showing conclusively their belief in the his toricity of Jonah. Augustine wrote with reference to the miracles of the Book: “I have heard this kind of in quiry ridiculed by pagans with great laughter. While pagan philosophers like Porphyry may have rejected its historicity, Christian theologians of the first six centuries accepted it universally. The scholars of the Reformation period never questioned it. It is only within the past century that theologians and preachers have considered themselves able to cor-
rect the mistake! It is possible that the evidence of all history is wrong? How appropriate indeed are the words of the learned Bishop Light- foot: “It may be that the historical sense of seventeen or eighteen cen turies is larger and truer than the critical insight of a section of men in our late half century.” 1. Robinson. The Twelve Minor Prophets, New York, 1930, pp. 86-87. 2. Tobit 14:3, 4, 8. See also III Maccabees 6 : 8 . Next month Dr. Bauman will discuss the City of Nineveh.
A V A I L A B L E N O W !
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